This year, the new Skyline Tardy Committee has implemented a four-tier tardy policy in hopes of helping motivate students to get to class on time. The policy includes letters home, community service, detention, and reporting of tardies on students’ permanent records.
“Tardies are a really big problem in our school,” says interim principal Casey Elmore. “I do think this new policy will help but it will definitely take a while to perfect it.”
Skyline teachers report feeling fed up with many students coming to class whenever they feel. “It’s frustrating. It disrupts my class,” says math teacher Nicholas Bertsos. “Every time someone walks in and it’s not like they just come in quietly – normally they’re talking to somebody and just causing distractions.”
This new tardy policy was decided by the recently formed Tardy Committee, made up of principals and teachers. “I think this was a building-wide issue, not just a teacher issue,” says Tardy Committee member and English Teacher Christopher Cole. “There were a significant number of students who were showing up severely late to their classes…. To address this issue, the Tardy Committee was established. We took advice and documents from surrounding high schools, including those in AAPS to come up with tardy-related language, the tardy letters, etc.”
Regardless of the hour, if a student is tardy four or more times to a class, then that teacher is supposed to send an email to notify parents of the tardiness. Teachers will document the student’s tardiness in the problem-solving document saying it’s a per-tier one intervention. “The first step is for teachers to be accurate in attendance in the classroom In the first ten minutes,” says Elmore.
Tier one, when a student reaches ten tardies, the school will send home a letter in the mail saying what hour the student got the tardies. Elmore notes that these consequences are “not always meant to be a punishment type thing, but an awareness that [tardiness] is not beneficial or helpful to you.”
The second tier, at 20 cumulative tardies, carries the same action as tier one, but once the student gets to the third tier, 30 cumulative tardies, Skyline will send another letter and the student will be responsible for creating an informative essay, apology letter, and/or serving community service.
Tier 4, 45 cumulative tardies, is the final tier. Skyline will mail a fourth letter home, a third discipline log entry will be documented, and the student will serve an after-school detention. The administration will schedule a parent/guardian meeting. ”This will go on your transcripts and colleges will see it,” says Elmore. “This is a big issue and can’t be treated lightly.”
Some students feel like they weren’t notified of this new change but are confident that it will help people get to class. “I had no idea they were going to send a letter home,” says Rylee Bourne (24). “Definitely, people will be more likely to come on time after they send a letter home.”
If anyone has questions or wants to share an opinion with the committee, the members are: George Brieloff, Christopher Cole, Karen Edman, Kendall Flowers, Gabe Rettaliata, Delsie Sissoko, and Casey Warner.
